Sam Tanenhaus is the editor of The New York Times Book Review and the author, most recently, of The Death of Conservatism, a controversial new book which argues that the contemporary right has forsaken the intellectual rigor and seriousness of William F. Buckley and Whittaker Chambers in favor of shallow partisan politics.
On September 8, Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Tanenhaus before he delivered a talk at Washington's American Enterprise Institute. "What conservatism has lost," says Tanenhaus, "is the capacity to elevate the argument. The genius of Buckley was that he made liberals think and write better."
Approximately 8.30 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg and Dan Hayes. Edited by Dan Hayes.
Go here for embed code and downloadable versions.
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|9.18.09 @ 9:53AM|#
Amazingly similar to what Lionel Trilling wrote in 1950 in The Liberal Imagination, with his famous quotes that "In the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominant but even the sole intellectual tradition." And "But the conservative impulse and the reactionary impulse...do not, with some isolated and some ecclesiastical exceptions, express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas." And he wasn't defending classical liberalism, either, as this was post-New Deal. So this criticism has always been thus from liberals.
Michael Ejercito|9.18.09 @ 9:55AM|#
Apparently Maureen Dowd did not get the memo.
|9.18.09 @ 10:00AM|#
Sounds to me like someone has a wee bit too much spare time on their hands here.
Jess
www.real-privacy.net.tc
ed|9.18.09 @ 10:09AM|#
The genius of Buckley was that he made liberals think and write better
Conservatism has been brain-dead for 50 years. The left wins by default.
DJF|9.18.09 @ 10:25AM|#
So this authors definition of true conservative is a CIA operative (Buckley) and a guy (Chambers) so dumb that he actually thought at one time that communism could work.
Richard Hoste|9.18.09 @ 10:29AM|#
No mention of changing demographics? Tsk-tsk-tsk.
Here's a better diagnosis.
|9.18.09 @ 6:52PM|#
NAM? Really?? I would misspell your name as Dick Host if that wouldn't get me a wrist-slap as a homophobe.